Likes your wee poem.
It was nice to see a couple of positive comments about my wee poem. I have been accused of digression quite a lot in this discussion but there is a reason for it. I am tying to open up the discussion to view the bigger picture, as I see it.
The poem said:
Once we learn to listen to young people,
We will realise that they are like mirrors,
reflecting back to us,
What we have done to them.
Max Cruickshank
Youth Worker
28/8/96
I wrote that poem because i was sick to the back teeth of trying to persuade politicians, youth and children’s workers, the media and others that empowering children and our young people was important. They ignored my pleas. Since then we have had all the exposure of child abuse, big worries about bullying, the new phenomena of Sexting and easy access to pornography of the worst kind, in our children’s bedrooms, hidden from parental controls, the scourge of an ever increasing number of children with mental health issues and obesity about to overwhelm our NHS. All of that affects every family in the land, it will cost us dearly if we cannot start to address it.
Fortunately, we in Scotland have made quite a bit of progress on all of that with our Young Scot youth information initiative, now copied in over thirty European countries, and England, giving kids access to reliable sources of information and trusted help. We have established our Scottish Youth Parliament, which the Scottish Parliament consults on ALL issues to do with children and young people. We have the vote at 16-17 in all elections, following the amazing demonstration of just how sensible our youth can be in our Referendum. We had 96,000 virgin voters of 16 & 17 registered to vote, and at the referendum 95% of them used their newly granted democratic right to vote, and hold our politicians to account. When I approached David Cameron to extend this franchise to all 16 & 17 year olds in the UK, he got the chair of the conservative party to email me with a rambling note, which basically said “there is absolutely no evidence that there is any desire for the vote of this age group”. Hmm!
So listening to our children will not be happening any time soon south of the Scottish border - unless others, and especially the adults dare to support our children in pursuing this to protect our children, and our democracy from decline.
So what on earth has this got to do with e-cigs and my petition asking that industry to fund, totally independent research into are e-cigs really safe, and do they aid people to completely abandon smoking and the nicotine addiction associated with it? In my mind, has everything to do with it. If we did that research it could include seeking the views of our children, who I am sure would contribute enormously to the debate, we would all gain from it. In the Scottish Referendum all the press predicted that the virgin voters were all going to vote NO but when the young people deliberated on it and considered the spin and dishonesty of our political leaders they changed their minds at eh very last minute, and voted overwhelmingly for YES for independence instead.
Those of you who have joined this very extensive discussion have contributed enormously to my understanding of the e-cigs issue. Most of you seem to have some great fear that if my petition were to succeed, you will all be deprived of what you believe to be the right to access, a safe and reliable way to quit smoking. You have argued vehemently that it is having no adverse affect on the youth of the world, I think you may be wrong. Because we really do not know the facts yet. I also think that you have absolutely nothing to fear, reliable, well designed research could easily be done by one of our well established universities, with no interference from those charged with funding it. The outcome must surely be to the advantage of every single one of us, young and old. Those who seek to profit from such a trade would be laughing all the way to the bank, if Weechancer’s views were kicked into touch, and it turned out that there is not a problem for any of us.
So sorry for my ramblings. I hope they made sense to some of you.
I have some important writing deadlines to meet this week, so may not be able to join in the fun. But I am sure that will not deter any of the others who are following this discussion. I live in hope that betweenness we can do our bit to make the world a better place than we found it when we arrived on it.